JPS6227513B2 - - Google Patents

Abstract

A connector is disclosed for making a pluggable interconnection between conductive planes of adjacent pairs of stacked circuit boards. The subject connector can be used on any mating edge of a circuit board and does not require the use of either a back plane or a mother board. The subject connector can be especially effective as an add-on to original equipment but also can be used as a spacer and interconnect in new equipment. The subject connector has very cost effective stamped and formed contacts providing great economy for the connector.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a plug-in connector for connecting conductive surfaces of two adjacent boards of a plurality of stacked boards.

Conventional techniques for this type of connector include those described in US Pat. No. 3,404,367 and US Pat. No. 3,634,816. These patents disclose a motherboard having a plurality of connector members attached thereto, each having an edge connector and one inserted into each connector member of the motherboard.
The same number of daughter boards as the number of connector members are described. Further, US Pat. No. 4,133,592 describes a connector that electrically and mechanically connects and stacks a plurality of boards. This arrangement has the obvious disadvantage that it is not easy to tamper with substrates located further into the stack of substrates. Further, the configurations described in the above-mentioned patents are disadvantageous in that they are not flexible, must be designed from the beginning according to the system, and are limited in form. Furthermore, installation and maintenance costs are high.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a connector that can be used to selectively connect conductive surfaces on two adjacent boards among a plurality of stacked boards. The connector of the present invention includes a plurality of connector members respectively fixed to the mating side edges of a plurality of substrates, and a plurality of plug members connecting the connector members on a pair of mutually adjacent substrates. The connector of the present invention is also fully self-supporting and uses inexpensive stamped and formed terminals.

Additionally, the present invention can be used with conventional devices and is comparable to a daisy wreath arrangement in that the edges of each board are directly connected one after the other, yet without the need for a supporting surface or motherboard. The purpose is to provide a connector system that can connect.

Additionally, the present invention can be formed into a discontinuous busbar so that ground lines, power lines, and signal lines can be shifted between adjacent boards as needed, thereby facilitating board replacement. It is an object of the present invention to provide a multi-board interconnection system that is both flexible and serves as a spacer and support for the boards.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

The connector 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention has a first
Although only a portion of the end is shown in Figures 2, 5, and 6, the connector 10 consists of an elongated rectangular plug member and a header member, the length of which corresponds to the circuit on the board to be connected. determined by the number of The connector 10 includes a header housing 12 that supports a plurality of male terminals 14 and a plug housing 1 that supports a plurality of receptacle terminals 18.
It is equipped with 6. The header housing 12 is attached to the end of the substrate 20.

The header housing 12 is an elongated member made of a highly rigid insulating material and has a central cavity 22 that is open to the fitting surface 24 side. The cavity 22 is provided with a plurality of terminal receiving recesses 26 formed in the transverse direction on its bottom surface. Each recess 26 is accessible through a slot 28 in the side wall of the housing 12. Housing 12 further includes a locking recess 30 and a projection 32.

The male terminal 14 includes a board engaging pin portion 34 and a pair of parallel male blades 36 and 38 extending perpendicularly to the pin portion 34 . Male terminal 1
4 further includes a locking barb 40.

The plug housing 16 is also an elongated member made of a highly rigid insulating material, and has a mating surface 42.
It has a central cavity 44 that is open on the side.
Two sets of terminal receiving recesses 46 and 48 extend from the central cavity 44. One set of terminal accommodating recesses 46 are arranged on one side of the central cavity 44, and the other set of terminal accommodating recesses 48 are arranged on one side of the central cavity 44.
4 and extend outward in opposite directions (FIG. 6). Plug housing 16 further includes a handle portion 50 and a plurality of mounting legs 52,54. Each mounting leg 5
2 and 54 are provided with locking protrusions 56 and 58 at their free ends. Further, the mounting leg 52 is provided with a fitting direction determining protrusion 60 (FIG. 4).

In addition to standard receptacle terminals as shown at 18 in FIGS. 1 and 6, irregular ones as shown at 18a may be used as required. (In this specification, both 18 and 18a may be collectively referred to as 18.) The standard receptacle terminal 18 includes a straight main body 62, and a pair of terminals from both ends of the main body 62. Legs 78, 80 extend downwardly. Each pair of legs 78, 80 defines a respective receptacle slot (see FIGS. 5-7). The structure of the receptacle section with such a pair of legs is described in US Pat. No. 3,865,462, so details thereof will be omitted here. Furthermore, locking barbs 70 and 72 are provided at both ends of the main body portion 62. The irregular receptacle terminal 18a has a main body part 64 whose central part is bent into two stages, and both end parts 66 and 68 of the main body part 64 are located in different planes that are parallel to each other. Similarly to the receptacle terminal 18, the receptacle terminal 18a also has a locking barb 7.
4, 76 and a pair of legs 82, 84 at both ends, respectively.

The operation of the connector of the present invention can best be understood by referring to FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, a header housing 12 is fixed to each board 20 by pin portions 34 of the male terminals 14. The header housing 12 may be fixed by the pin portion 34 by press-fitting the pin portion 34 into the board 20 or by soldering it, or by the method described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,982. This may be achieved by providing the pin portion 34 with an active surface as shown in FIG. Further, if necessary, the header housing 12 may be provided with holding means such as legs or flanges, or screw holes to fix it to the substrate 20. Each board 20 is arranged parallel to each other at intervals and secured to each other by mounting the plug housing 16. The assembly of substrates fixed in this way can be erected without any support. The receptacle terminal 18 is fitted within the plug housing 16 with the blade portions 36, 38 of the male terminal 14, and the mounting legs 52, 54 are fitted within the header housing 12.
3 and 5. At this time, the orientation of the plug housing 16 is selected so that the protrusion 60 on the mounting leg 52 engages with the recess 30 of the header housing 12, and the plug housing 16 and the header housing 12 are fitted together. As described above, according to the connector of the present invention, a plurality of boards can be combined without requiring other means such as a motherboard.

The irregular receptacle terminal 18a is used to jump between circuits that are not on a straight line between adjacent boards. Therefore, the main body 64
The middle part of the jumper can be as long as you like, but in reality, the distance between the jumpers is one or two spaces, and it is rarely longer than that.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing a part of a connector system according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the assembled state, and FIG. 3 is a connector system that connects multiple boards. Fig. 4 is an exploded sectional view of the connector system, Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken along line 5-5 in Fig. 3, and Fig. 6 is an end face of the connector system on the fitting side of the plug member. 7 are perspective views illustrating the fitted state of the male terminal and receptacle terminal of the connector system. 12... Header housing, 14... Male terminal, 16... Plug housing, 18... Receptacle terminal, 20... Board.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Adjacent two of a plurality of boards arranged in parallel at narrow intervals, each consisting of a header housing 12 and a plug housing 16 attached to the mating side edge of each board 20. In a connector system for selectively connecting two substrates, the header housing 12 is an elongated member made of a rigid insulating material and has a central cavity 22, and a pin portion 34 and a pin portion thereof. A plurality of male terminals 14 having first and second perpendicularly extending blade portions 36, 38 are housed within the central cavity, the pin portions being electrically and mechanically coupled to circuitry on the substrate. The plug housing is an elongated member made of a rigid insulating material, and a plurality of receptacle terminals 18 are fixed within the plug housing,
The receptacle terminal 18 includes a pair of receptacle parts 78 and 80 extending parallel to each other from both ends of the main body part 62 with a distance determined by the distance between the adjacent boards, and the plug housing 16 The mounting legs 52, 5 are inserted and held within the header housing 12 so as to selectively connect a pair of adjacent boards.
A connector system characterized by comprising 4. 2. The connector system according to claim 1, wherein the header housing 12 is provided with fitting direction determining means 30, 32. 3. The header housing 12 has a pair of parallel elongated openings into which one half of the plug housing is inserted.
Connector system as described in section. 4 Both blade portions 36, 3 of the male terminal 14
8 are provided at both ends of the main body portion so as to be aligned with each other, both blade portions of which are respectively accommodated in the pair of openings of the header housing 12, and both blade portions of the receptacle terminal 18. The pair of receptacle parts 78, 80
Claim 3, characterized in that the pin portion 34 of the male terminal 14 extends from the main body portion.
Connector system as described in section. 5. The connector system of claim 1, wherein said header housing 12 includes means for securing said header housing to said substrate. 6. Connector system according to claim 1, characterized in that the plug housing 16 is provided with a handle 50 to facilitate its manipulation. 7. The receptacle terminal 18 consists of a conductive elongated main body 62 and a pair of legs 78, 80 extending downward from both ends of the main body 62.
8 and 80 are offset from each other to form a blade-receiving slot therebetween, and each pair of legs is curved to resiliently engage a blade inserted into said slot. A connector system according to claim 1, characterized in that the connector system is adapted to: 8. A connector system according to claim 7, wherein each said receptacle terminal (18) is provided with locking barbs (70, 72) for securing said receptacle terminal within said plug housing (16). 9 The positions of the pair of receptacle portions 82 and 84 of the receptacle terminal 18 are laterally offset and are located in separate planes parallel to each other, whereby the receptacle terminal is discontinuous between adjacent boards. 8. Connector system according to claim 7, characterized in that it is adapted to form a bus.